Community Corner

Readers React to Sandy Hook Shootings

'Everything isn't ok.' – Patch reader Sue Keller.

The Sandy Hook shootings have shocked the nation and have spurred conversations on everything from gun control to mental health treatment to safety in schools.

See how Westminster and Eldersburg Patch readers reacted to Carroll County school officials, who said Friday there would be more police in local schools the day of the shooting in Connecticut, but that there would be no major changes to the schools’ safety plans.

Tell us in comments: Do more safety measures need to be put in place?

Find out what's happening in Westminsterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Chris E “While I like having police around schools I feel this is a knee jerk reaction. Why don't we focus on what can be done to make schools a safer place all the time not just when a horrific incident has occurred. Starting with keeping the doors locked at the schools and making sure there is always someone who can see who is walking in the front door would be a good start. I cannot tell you how many times I have walked into my son's school to find no staff in the front office at all for an extended period of time. Anyone could walk in and nobody would know until it is to late.”

Paula Dearing “I can't help thinking that with all of the senior citizens we have, and I'm one of them, I think many of them would consider sitting at the door to observe anyone coming in during the day. As a matter of fact, aside from being just ‘people power,’ it would give a lot of seniors a sense of purpose that perhaps they may lack from time to time. Just a thought!”

Find out what's happening in Westminsterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

L.A.P. “Really? This was an isolated event in another state. Could something like this happen here? Unfortunately, yes. The peripheral patrolling of our local schools is no more than ‘show’ and, as others have said, a knee-jerk reaction.”

50 Bales of Hay “If someone wants in, they'll come in. Doors, cameras, senior citizen monitors, staff...nothing will stop a heavily armed intruder with intent other than an armed responder.”  

Sue Keller “Why do some people persist in the notion that we must live as we lived in the 1950s? Clearly, it isn't the 1950s anymore. We need meaningful, daily, consistent security measures in our schools. We lock our doors to our homes, we lock our car doors, we need to lock our schools. … Now, we're supposed to reassure our kids that everything's OK. But we've seen this before. A copycat shooter will surface in the next few weeks or months. But nothing will have changed and we'll be crying over someone else's body. Everything isn't OK. But the powers that be will claim nothing more can be done. And the folks who want to pretend it's still the 1950s will clamor that we can't live in fear and the best thing we can do is resume our lives as if nothing had happened. That's not good enough anymore. Pry some money out of the budget; administrators salaries are ripe for cutting. And now that the biometric scanner lunch pass program is kaput, that should free up some money.”


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